Explorers In Good Company

The National Geographic Society is paying homage to seven explorers who uncovered some wonders of the world.

Early Show Co-AnchorJane Clayson spoke Monday morning with two of the society's first "explorers in residence" who were in Washington: Robert Ballard, whose underwater adventures led to the discovery of the Titanic, and Jane Goodall, whose pioneering work with chimpanzees changed the perception of animal behavior.

Ballard is planning some expeditions "starting this summer in the Black Sea and then going hopefully after Sir Ernest Shackelton's ship, The Endurance," Ballard says.

"I've had a long-term relationship with the Geographic going right back to 1961, and this is a kind of an extension of that," Goodall notes. For her the designation translates into exploring the habitats of chimpanzees in southwest Tanzania, finding out how many are left, and also in the southern part Congo, Brazzaville, where there are more wild chimps than previously thought. But she adds: "They're disappearing very fast."

While some might think that everything possible has been discovered, to the top of Mt. Everest and even Mars, Ballard noted there's still plenty to find on Earth, however - mostly in the ocean. "We've hardly explored the Southern Hemisphere where most of the world's oceans are located," he says.

He notes there are better maps now of Mars and Venus than of Earth. "So, clearly, Earth is a great frontier of exploration, where we haven't even done Lewis and Clark expeditions underwater yet."

"But new species are continually being found," Goodall says. "And there's just so much out there that we don't know anything about, particularly some of the animals. Nobody ever watched them."

In specific, she elaborates, "We hope to find out more about the differences in cultural variability in different chimpanzee groups across Africa," Adds Goodall: "We've got to work fast because the chimpazees are disappearing very rapidly because of the bush meat trade. But, you know, this new relationship hopefully will get issues like this out in front of the public."

Both showed off artifacts of discoveries important to their work over the years.

Goodall has "a nicely modified twig," as she describes it. "It's had all the nobbly bits of bark pulled off because the chimps use it to fish for very vicious biting ants. And they'll push it down in the hole, tap it gently. The ants come out in a great swarm. And because they bite so horribly, it's important to be able to pull it through very very fast," she notes. It has to be smooth.

There's famous videotape of Goodall engaging in this activity with the chimps. "I've engaged in doing the termite fishing, which is more gentle and less dangerous," she explains. "I would not go and sit on a saari ant or an army ant nest for anything."

For Ballard, describes what at one time was a new species, a giant clam shell "that we found in hydrothermal vents," he explains. "And this is when we discovered a whole new life system on our planet. And it's leading us, actually, to search for life on other planets and moons. We think, for example, the moon of Jupiter, Europa, which has an ocean, may have underwater hydrothermal vents and may have similar life systems. So this was important discovery for earth scientists and biologists when we made it with National Geographic in 1977."

Recent exploration has changed with all the new technology, both say.
"It has certainly made places far more accessible, in the world's oceans," Ballard says. "When we found the Yorktown with National Geographic a couple years ago, we couldn't have done that without new search technologies."

"What we're doing trying to find Shackleton's Endurance is requring a whole new technology of autonomous vehicles, or unmanned but also untethered vehicles," he adds.

He is off to the Black Sea to look where the Biblical floods may have occurred. Columbia University scientists have shown "there was a huge flood about the time of the legend," he says. "We went down there last year with National Geographic; we found the ancient shoreline still underwater at 550 feet. And we'll be going this summer, to go along that shoreline and try to find evidence of human habitation from 7,000 years ago."

Goodall reports the use of the new DNA profiling. "And it can now be from feces. So for the first time in 40 years...we'll be able know for sure who the fathers are. And this is amazing."

"For me in the next couple of months, it's more of the same, traveling around, giving lectures and trying to raise an endowment so this work can continue," she says of her itinerary. "And something can happen to me any day. And I want the work to go on."